Episode 3 of 3

Johnson's Vice-Presidential Incident

When: March 4, 1865
Where: United States Capitol
Part of: Abraham Lincoln is sworn in for a second term

Andrew Johnson's vice-presidential oath and speech were widely criticized as a disaster and a mortifying fiasco.

Historian Eric Foner labeled the inauguration a disaster for Johnson. Johnson was ridiculed in the press as a "drunken clown," and his performance is remembered as a mortifying fiasco. This incident served as an unfortunate prelude to Lincoln's memorable second inaugural address.

Sources

Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.